U.S. soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghans brought to Kansas

PanARMENIAN.Net - Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the American soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghan villagers, has been placed in solitary confinement at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas awaiting military proceedings, The Guardian reported.

The U.S. army on Friday, March 16, named Bales as the soldier suspected of walking off his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and shooting the civilians, including nine children and three women, in a massacre that has sent American-Afghan relations into a tailspin.

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has accused the Pentagon of failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into the killings and questioned whether Bales acted alone.

"The army confirms that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bales is being held in pre-trial confinement," the army said in a statement. The 38-year-old soldier, whose military unit is based south of Tacoma, Washington, had been held in Kuwait after he was flown out of Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Bales is expected to face a U.S. military trial but it is not clear where this would take place. He has not yet been charged but "I would assume he'll be charged pretty fast", said Jeffrey Lustick, a defence attorney and former air force military lawyer in Bellingham, Washington.

Photos of a soldier identified as Bales, wearing camouflage and battle gear, appeared in an article about training for soldiers headed for Afghanistan on a web publication linked to Fort Irwin, a California military base. According to the website the photos were taken in August.

Bales's wife and two young children have been moved to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle for protection, according to Bales's Seattle-based lawyer, John Henry Browne.

The army said Bales would be held in "special housing in his own cell" in the Fort Leavenworth detention centre, which it described as a "medium/minimum custody facility".

An unnamed U.S. official had told the New York Times the killings were a result of "a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues – he just snapped".